Post date: Aug 11, 2012 11:59:1 AM
FLORENCE, ITALY (FILE) (GUARDIA DI FINANZA POLICE HANDOUT) - Italian finance police said on Saturday (August 11) cash seizures at the country's airports and border checkpoints have skyrocketed this year, in part thanks to specially trained dogs who sniff out cash stashed inside sanitary napkins and hair brushes.
Italy's financial and border police say more than 41 million euros worth of cash has been seized at border crossings in the first seven months of the year, an increase of 78 percent from last year.
More than 41 million euros (50.49 million US dollars) was confiscated during the first seven months of the year, a 78 percent increase from the same period last year, police said in a statement.
In the video released along with the figures, two finance police officers are shown cutting open sanitary napkins found in a suitcase with scissors and pulling out 100-euro notes.
Another image shows a golden retriever at Florence airport identifying a suspect's bag, and a wad of 500-euro bills stuffed behind the bristles of a hair brush.
Tango, a four-year-old Labrador, picked up the scent of 424,000 euros stuffed into a Sri Lankan's suitcase at Milan's Malpensa airport, while the dog's brother, Cash, found 242,000 euros hidden in a pensioner's car as he crossed the Italian-Swiss border, police said.
At Rome's Fiumicino airport, police said they discovered 100,000 euros being smuggled by a Chinese business woman - in her underwear.
The police cash haul is part of a crackdown on tax evaders by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government, which wants to shore up public accounts with the country at the centre of the euro zone debt crisis.
Italy has one of the highest estimated rates of tax evasion in Europe, which some say nears 20 percent of gross domestic product.
Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli has estimated that revenues from anti-tax evasion measures would bring in more than 10 billion euros in extra revenue this year.
Apart from cash, precious metals have also been seized, with 88 kilos of gold found through July this year, double the amount during the same period of 2011.
The lion's share - 50 kilos in thin gold bars - was discovered under in a double-bottom built into the car seat of a 50-year-old Italian man on his way to Switzerland with his young daughter, police said.